The MS 8162 collection includes drafts, correspondence, papers relating to the Australia Council and the David Nichol Smith Seminars and miscellaneous material. The drafts are of Brissenden's poems, short stories and reviews. The correspondence relates to personal, literary, business and official matters and includes copies of many of his letters. Correspondents include Bruce Beaver, Vincent Buckley, David Campbell, Laurie Clancy, Robert D. FitzGerald, Rodney Hall, A.D. Hope, Barry Humphries, Mark O'Connor, Judith Rodriguez, Tom Shapcott, Christina Stead, Harold Stewart, Alison Summers, Andrew Taylor, Ric Throssell and Patrick White (35 boxes).

The Acc03.128 instalment comprises manuscript and related material by Brissenden; incoming and some copies of outgoing correspondence from family, friends and colleagues, academic, literary and professional; and, working files on Australian, English and American literary figures and subjects of professional and personal interest to Brissenden such as censorship of the arts in Australia (6 boxes, 9 cartons).

The Acc03.152 instalment comprises personal papers, dating back to the late 1940s, and censorship papers (2 cartons).

Poet, novelist and academic. Robert Francis (Bob) Brissenden was born in Wentworthville, Sydney, in 1928 and educated at the Universities of Sydney and Leeds. He held teaching and research positions at several Australian and overseas universities, including the Australian National University where he was a lecturer and then a reader in the English Department, 1957-1985. He was a member of the Literature Board of the Australia Council, 1977-1981, and its chairman from 1978-1981. He was also an associate editor of Meanjin, 1959-1964, and literary editor of the Australian, 1964-1965. Brissenden edited the anthologies Southern harvest (1964) and Australian poetry (1972). His published works include Winter matins and other poems (1971), Elegies: nine poems (1974), The whale in darkness (poems) (1980), and Sacred sites (1990). In his retirement he wrote crime fiction: Poor boy (1987) and Wildcat (1991). He was also the convener and chairman of the Executive Committee of the David Nichol Smith Memorial Seminars, 1964-1977. Brissenden died in Canberra in 1991.

R.F. Brissenden interviewed by Hazel de Berg in the Hazel de Berg collection; Located at; National Library of Australia Oral History collection ORAL TRC 1/206-207. Interview with Robert Brissenden, poet; Located at; National Library of Australia Oral History collection ORAL TRC 328.

Source of Acquisition

Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program by Rosemary Brissenden.

Index/Finding Aid Note

Finding aid available in the Special Collections Reading Room and online at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.ms-ms8162

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